Motorola Solutions is celebrating its 90th anniversary. As part of the 90th anniversary celebration, the company’s charitable giving arm announced a $90,000 global scholarship initiative to advance educations of women pursuing careers in engineering.

Since Sept. 25, 1928, Motorola Solutions has delivered a range of technology including mission-critical communications solutions worldwide. The company pioneered technologies such as automobile radios and two-way radios for public safety in the 1930s and delivered the communications system that carried mankind’s first words from the moon in 1969. The company also launched the first commercial handheld cellular phone in 1983.

The company now serves more than 100,000 public safety and commercial customers in more than 100 countries and boasts more than 5,500 patents and $568 million of research and development (R&D) spending in 2017.

The Motorola Solutions Foundation donated $90,000 to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the world’s largest advocate for women in engineering and technology. The charitable gift enables SWE to launch its inaugural global scholarship program, building on decades of stewarding scholarship programs focused primarily in the United States.

“As a global company with a 90-year heritage of innovation, we are proud to work with the Society of Women Engineers and invest in the next generation of female innovators,” said Matt Blakely, executive director of the Motorola Solutions Foundation. “As the leading provider of mission-critical communications solutions, we’re committed to building a pipeline of talented students who will invent new ways to build safer cities and thriving communities around the world.”

The Motorola Solutions Foundation gift is expected to fund 18 scholarships each valued at $5,000 to women pursuing engineering degrees from one of 3,800 Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)-accredited programs at colleges and universities in 31 countries. Priority will be given to underrepresented populations as well as students demonstrating financial need.

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